A SPECIAL HERO OF THE DAY!
Name: The Simpsons
Age: 33
Occupation: everybody's favorite animated TV family
Last Seen: Sundays at 8 p.m. on Fox
Awarded For: lampooning my old hometown newspaper
Age: 33
Occupation: everybody's favorite animated TV family
Last Seen: Sundays at 8 p.m. on Fox
Awarded For: lampooning my old hometown newspaper
----
You can easily say that Matt Groening might be psychic.
Or even better, from the future.
If you've watched The Simpsons for over 30 years like I have, you know that the show does a good job of predicting the future. On one episode, the 20th Century Fox sign has a byline of "A Division of The Walt Disney Company". Years later, guess who owns Fox? It also predicted the invention of smartwatches, Drumpf being president, Siegfried and Roy being attacked by a tiger and the invention of autocorrect.
Well, as we all know, it takes months for one episode to be made. It's gotta be written, laid out, animated and so on. When Sunday's episode was being made, maybe - just maybe - the producers knew a few things about my birth town of Traverse City, Michigan.
On Sunday's Simpsons, First Church of Springfield hires a new assistant pastor, played by Pete Holmes. Immediately, he becomes so popular that the church elders fire Rev. Lovejoy. Angry, Lovejoy and his wife try to dig up some dirt on the new pastor. They Google him up and find nothing. Desperate, the Lovejoys go to Michigan, where the new pastor came from. They end up in Traverse City at the town's fictional newspaper, the Traverse City Press. Using the paper's microfilm system, they find out that the new pastor was part of a scandal. The article they read had the headline "Handsome Pastor in Easter Ouster". The film catches fire from the hot lightbulb while the paper's elderly publisher utters "I should have digitized the paper".
To add insult to injury, the Press' slogan is "All The News That Fits On Two Pages".
In all fairness, Traverse City does have a decent daily paper, the Record-Eagle, and yes, they do have a cohesive digital presence. As a matter of fact, sites like NewspaperArchive.com have archives of the R-E dating back to the 1890s (but ya gotta pay). Usually, the R-E is way more than two pages; it's more like 20.
And speak of the devil, there was a Traverse City Press that was around in the 1910s. This particular edition had eight pages.
But here's where I think Groening and Co. had their Carnac hats on. Just a day before the episode aired, R-E's publisher and editor made a tough announcement. Because of diminished advertising revenue and fears of COVID-19 among their office and print staff, they have abandoned publishing on Mondays and Tuesdays at least temporarily. They will still publish a digital edition of the paper on their website for the time being, though it clearly shows how the combination of COVID-19 plus the fact that the majority of people who buy newspapers these days probably own parrots like my mother. Monday's edition only had 12 pages total. Today's edition just had ten with no Sports section.
The funny thing is that there are links between northern Michigan, the R-E and The Simpsons themselves. Julie Kavner, Marge Simpson herself has a home near Torch Lake. As for the R-E, it was once owned by Dow Jones until 2006 when it was sold to Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. Two years ago, the company was sold to Retirement Systems of Alabama, the former owners of Raycom, which owned NBC affiliate WPBN 7&4 in the 1990s. A year after the R-E was sold to CNHI, Dow Jones was sold to Murdoch.
Maybe because of all this, Helen was able to pronounce "Mackinac" correctly.
When a person, place or thing gets lampooned, it's usually an honor. Years ago, Nirvana claimed that they knew they made it when Weird Al Yankovic parodied "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as "Smells Like Nirvana". However, some were angry over his parodies, like Coolio when his "Gangsta's Paradise" was parodied as "Amish Paradise". In the case of satirical magazines like Mad, many enjoyed seeing themselves drawn by their great caricaturists like the late Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, Jack Rickard and the very-much-still alive Angelo Torres and Tom Richmond. As a matter of fact, Quentin Tarantino commissioned Mad and Richmond to create several fake covers in regard to Leonardo DiCaprio's fictional TV show in his recent movie "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood".
Obviously, I originally created this site to tell the broadcasters in northern Michigan to simply be better when it comes to serving its audience. After all, northern Michigan has long been a far-from-perfect market for media. After all, Traverse City didn't get its first radio station until 1941, eleven years after the first commercial radio station, KDKA Pittsburgh signed on. It was also in 1941 that the first TV station, what is now WNBC-TV New York made its first broadcast. Television didn't come to northern Michigan until 1954. FM radio first came around in the late 1930s. Northern Michigan? Early 60s. The list goes on. However, the R-E has been around since 1857. It started nearly 100 years after America's oldest paper, the Hartford Courant began publication. It is older than many other well-established papers like the Chicago Sun-Times, The Grand Rapids Press and The Detroit News. When the paper celebrated its 150th Anniversary in 2007, Michael Moore even put an ad in the paper thanking them for not going the cookie-cutter route like other papers have in terms of real journalism. He commanded them for their coverage of the scandal involving Meijer wanting to put a massive new store in Acme and the chain's plan to get elected officials fired for opposing the plan. Of course, Meijer got their way. Thanks to them, M-72 is loaded with confusing roundabouts and there's not one, but two abandoned buildings on US-31 that once housed a Kmart and a locally-owned Tom's Food Market.
In many ways, the R-E is a helluva lot more-respected than TV and radio stations in the area. In northern Michigan, four TV stations are owned by two companies through back-deal agreements and several radio stations are off the air due to either poor management or the fact that they're up for sale. It is kinda sad that instead of attacking the broadcasters in the area, The Simpsons had to pick on the R-E. But then again, like many other native northern Michiganders, I've had my beefs with the paper that some have nicknamed "The Wretched Beagle". But then again, better them over other papers like The Grand Rapids Press, which has a right-lean and hires morons like "Huge" Bill Simonson to write shitty articles for them.
IMHO, the Traverse City Record-Eagle should enjoy their two seconds of fame, even if the producers got the name of the paper wrong. Sometimes, being parodied or being criticized makes one better. Years ago, I was constantly making fun of a Howard Stern wannabe morning show in northern Michigan. The show got sacked. Well, one of the members of that morning show and I had a few conversations about broadcasting and the business itself. Turns out that he and the show's host were huge fans of my blog! When they got hired by a competing station, he actually told me that he didn't mind my criticisms of that show. Believe it or not, they felt that they could use them to make their show better. And you know what? He's right!
As somebody who's a fan of people like Jon Taffer and Gordon Ramsay, the lesson is that people need criticism to make their lives better. When people can't accept criticism, their lives are doomed. My former boss was like that. When people criticized him for going on vacation every two minutes while we haven't had a raise in ten years, he'd find an excuse to fire them. There was no pleasing him. But, when he retired, our company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Of course, new management heard us and soon, we were getting raises. Even through these tough times, we're getting incentives to stay employed, like getting paid if there's no work.
The point of any business is that even though you might be the boss, you still have a boss, and it's us. Look at KLT in northern Michigan: I fucking hate that station, but the boomers love them. If you love butt rock, KLT is for you. But, since they have decent ratings, plus the fact that they added a new signal in Alpena, they might be around for a little longer. Personally, Rock 105/95-5 is my jam up north musically. Why? They play newer music, plus the rock from my teenage years. Once the boomers die off, then I'll predict that KLT will have to change right then and there.
I haven't heard any response from R-E's management or staff regarding the Simpsons blurb. If they think it's funny like me, then hallelujah. But, if they're going to beg the producers for an apology, then they're assholes. Hell, when she was lampooned on a cut sketch from Saturday Night Live last weekend, Gretchen Whitmer gave it her thumbs up, though she corrected them for the fact that she was chugging a Labatt Blue. Us Michiganders love our Bell's.
After all, they who laughs last, laughs best.
On Sunday's Simpsons, First Church of Springfield hires a new assistant pastor, played by Pete Holmes. Immediately, he becomes so popular that the church elders fire Rev. Lovejoy. Angry, Lovejoy and his wife try to dig up some dirt on the new pastor. They Google him up and find nothing. Desperate, the Lovejoys go to Michigan, where the new pastor came from. They end up in Traverse City at the town's fictional newspaper, the Traverse City Press. Using the paper's microfilm system, they find out that the new pastor was part of a scandal. The article they read had the headline "Handsome Pastor in Easter Ouster". The film catches fire from the hot lightbulb while the paper's elderly publisher utters "I should have digitized the paper".
To add insult to injury, the Press' slogan is "All The News That Fits On Two Pages".
In all fairness, Traverse City does have a decent daily paper, the Record-Eagle, and yes, they do have a cohesive digital presence. As a matter of fact, sites like NewspaperArchive.com have archives of the R-E dating back to the 1890s (but ya gotta pay). Usually, the R-E is way more than two pages; it's more like 20.
And speak of the devil, there was a Traverse City Press that was around in the 1910s. This particular edition had eight pages.
But here's where I think Groening and Co. had their Carnac hats on. Just a day before the episode aired, R-E's publisher and editor made a tough announcement. Because of diminished advertising revenue and fears of COVID-19 among their office and print staff, they have abandoned publishing on Mondays and Tuesdays at least temporarily. They will still publish a digital edition of the paper on their website for the time being, though it clearly shows how the combination of COVID-19 plus the fact that the majority of people who buy newspapers these days probably own parrots like my mother. Monday's edition only had 12 pages total. Today's edition just had ten with no Sports section.
The funny thing is that there are links between northern Michigan, the R-E and The Simpsons themselves. Julie Kavner, Marge Simpson herself has a home near Torch Lake. As for the R-E, it was once owned by Dow Jones until 2006 when it was sold to Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. Two years ago, the company was sold to Retirement Systems of Alabama, the former owners of Raycom, which owned NBC affiliate WPBN 7&4 in the 1990s. A year after the R-E was sold to CNHI, Dow Jones was sold to Murdoch.
Maybe because of all this, Helen was able to pronounce "Mackinac" correctly.
When a person, place or thing gets lampooned, it's usually an honor. Years ago, Nirvana claimed that they knew they made it when Weird Al Yankovic parodied "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as "Smells Like Nirvana". However, some were angry over his parodies, like Coolio when his "Gangsta's Paradise" was parodied as "Amish Paradise". In the case of satirical magazines like Mad, many enjoyed seeing themselves drawn by their great caricaturists like the late Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, Jack Rickard and the very-much-still alive Angelo Torres and Tom Richmond. As a matter of fact, Quentin Tarantino commissioned Mad and Richmond to create several fake covers in regard to Leonardo DiCaprio's fictional TV show in his recent movie "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood".
Obviously, I originally created this site to tell the broadcasters in northern Michigan to simply be better when it comes to serving its audience. After all, northern Michigan has long been a far-from-perfect market for media. After all, Traverse City didn't get its first radio station until 1941, eleven years after the first commercial radio station, KDKA Pittsburgh signed on. It was also in 1941 that the first TV station, what is now WNBC-TV New York made its first broadcast. Television didn't come to northern Michigan until 1954. FM radio first came around in the late 1930s. Northern Michigan? Early 60s. The list goes on. However, the R-E has been around since 1857. It started nearly 100 years after America's oldest paper, the Hartford Courant began publication. It is older than many other well-established papers like the Chicago Sun-Times, The Grand Rapids Press and The Detroit News. When the paper celebrated its 150th Anniversary in 2007, Michael Moore even put an ad in the paper thanking them for not going the cookie-cutter route like other papers have in terms of real journalism. He commanded them for their coverage of the scandal involving Meijer wanting to put a massive new store in Acme and the chain's plan to get elected officials fired for opposing the plan. Of course, Meijer got their way. Thanks to them, M-72 is loaded with confusing roundabouts and there's not one, but two abandoned buildings on US-31 that once housed a Kmart and a locally-owned Tom's Food Market.
In many ways, the R-E is a helluva lot more-respected than TV and radio stations in the area. In northern Michigan, four TV stations are owned by two companies through back-deal agreements and several radio stations are off the air due to either poor management or the fact that they're up for sale. It is kinda sad that instead of attacking the broadcasters in the area, The Simpsons had to pick on the R-E. But then again, like many other native northern Michiganders, I've had my beefs with the paper that some have nicknamed "The Wretched Beagle". But then again, better them over other papers like The Grand Rapids Press, which has a right-lean and hires morons like "Huge" Bill Simonson to write shitty articles for them.
IMHO, the Traverse City Record-Eagle should enjoy their two seconds of fame, even if the producers got the name of the paper wrong. Sometimes, being parodied or being criticized makes one better. Years ago, I was constantly making fun of a Howard Stern wannabe morning show in northern Michigan. The show got sacked. Well, one of the members of that morning show and I had a few conversations about broadcasting and the business itself. Turns out that he and the show's host were huge fans of my blog! When they got hired by a competing station, he actually told me that he didn't mind my criticisms of that show. Believe it or not, they felt that they could use them to make their show better. And you know what? He's right!
As somebody who's a fan of people like Jon Taffer and Gordon Ramsay, the lesson is that people need criticism to make their lives better. When people can't accept criticism, their lives are doomed. My former boss was like that. When people criticized him for going on vacation every two minutes while we haven't had a raise in ten years, he'd find an excuse to fire them. There was no pleasing him. But, when he retired, our company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Of course, new management heard us and soon, we were getting raises. Even through these tough times, we're getting incentives to stay employed, like getting paid if there's no work.
The point of any business is that even though you might be the boss, you still have a boss, and it's us. Look at KLT in northern Michigan: I fucking hate that station, but the boomers love them. If you love butt rock, KLT is for you. But, since they have decent ratings, plus the fact that they added a new signal in Alpena, they might be around for a little longer. Personally, Rock 105/95-5 is my jam up north musically. Why? They play newer music, plus the rock from my teenage years. Once the boomers die off, then I'll predict that KLT will have to change right then and there.
I haven't heard any response from R-E's management or staff regarding the Simpsons blurb. If they think it's funny like me, then hallelujah. But, if they're going to beg the producers for an apology, then they're assholes. Hell, when she was lampooned on a cut sketch from Saturday Night Live last weekend, Gretchen Whitmer gave it her thumbs up, though she corrected them for the fact that she was chugging a Labatt Blue. Us Michiganders love our Bell's.
After all, they who laughs last, laughs best.
--
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Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
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